They are not only idle who do nothing, but they are idle also who might be better employed.

To fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For anything that men can tell, death may be the greatest good that can happen to them: but they fear it as if they knew quite well that it was the greatest of evils. And what is this but that shameful ignorance of thinking that we know what we do not know?

Though flattery blossoms like friendship, yet there is a vast difference in the fruit.

When you want success as badly as you want the air, then you will get it. There is no other secret of success.

Wonder is the beginning of all wisdom.

I pray Thee, O God, that I may be beautiful within.

The invention of writing will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom.